Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

The Return of Brandon League

More on this on Sunday, but the Blue Jays activated RHP Brandon League from the 60-day DL after Saturday’s game. League, who has been out since Spring Training, is expected to be in Boston for the finale against the BoSox. Jordan De Jong was optioned to Triple-A. Toronto manager John Gibbons hinted that League may help out in the setup role, which has been occupied by Casey Janssen. Thoughts?

gsumner and freedom: I’ve got to hand it to you guys — if nothing else, you’re persistent!

And I know you guys will disagree with this, but for what it’s worth I really don’t buy the “Gibbons’ burnt out AJ’s arm argument”. I mean, really, what are we supposed to do with Burnett then? Never let him pitch past the 6th inning for his entire career because he “might” hurt his arm? AJ talks like he’s an elite pitcher, but elite pitcher’s step it up and can handle stepping it up when the team needs them to. If I remember right, the Jays’ bullpen was overworked and tired when AJ had those three lengthy outings in a row. Halladay was on the DL, a lot of the starting guys weren’t pitching deep into games, and someone needed to step it up and give the bullpen some rest: AJ tried to be that guy, but unfortunately he just doesn’t cut it.

All in all, I guess I just miss the days when pitchers weren’t handled with kid’s gloves. Where are the Dave Stieb’s of today? Now there’s a guy who wouldn’t give the ball up every time he hit 100 pitches….

I’m not disagreeing with your assessment of Dave Stieb, Jack Morrison and others back some time ago. But, as much as we’d all like starters to go 120-130 pitches each time out today it doesn’t happen. They are not conditioned for it.

Why-who knows, but I do not know one starting pitcher today capable of doing it. On occasion, yes, but not as a habit.

I thought you’d find it interesting, though, to see even the Boston fans saw McGowan was out of gas and Gibby made the wrong decision leaving him in.

It will be great to have Brandon back. I look forward to next year with Brandon, Janssen and Accardo working the late innings and Ryan closing.

It appears his injury, If I’m reading it right, was caused by the off season workout schedule set for him by The Jays. I wonder if Brandon didn’t follow the schedule, just followed it too well, or it was the wrong scheduel.

Yep, they’re a dying breed. I think once Schilling retires, that might be about it for the hardcore starting pitchers. I mean there’s a guy who would pitch back-to-back complete games on three days rest. Other than Halladay, I don’t think the Jays have anyone who would even THINK about doing attempting that sort of thing. (And just for the record, it’s Jack Morris, not Morrison!)

And, yeah, I guess that’s interesting about the Boston fan. I dunno, though, I’m skeptical about a lot of the people on this site. Half the time I feel like I’m talking to one tech-savvy kid with multiple email addresses who’s posting with different names….

Yeah, if League can return to form, the Jays will finally have a bullpen with an option other than Accardo, Jannsen, and Downs. Tallet and Wolfe have had their moments, but they’re not as consistent as the other three.

There’s Frasor, too, but he’s got so many confidence issues that I think Gibbons finds it hard to give him the ball in pressure-cooker situations….

I checked out Stieb’s record. It appears his highest inning count in a year was 288 in 1982. He started in 38 games that year and averaged 7.58 innings per outing. The other horses in The BLue Jays history of note were Jim Clancy, Doyle Alexander and Dave Lemanczyk.

I think putting in Frasor as the closer at the start of the season probably hurt him. I would like to see him develop a good changeup to go with the fastball and slider. I think he needs that pitch to really be effective.

Stieb was a great competitor. I wish he was around to give guys like Burnett and McGowan a much needed kick in the butt. Both of them have great stuff, but I think their attitude (especially in the case of Burnett!) really needs some work. I mean, come on, running in a chili’s race and pieing people in the face when you’re on the DL? I’m all for a relaxed clubhouse, but not that relaxed!

Another pitch might be good for Frasor, but I’m actually happy with his role as-is. Every bullpen needs a guy like him — someone to come in for an inning or two when you’re two or three runs down (or up) and not make things worse. I also don’t think being thrust into the closer’s role hurt him either — if anything, it just exposed his weakness: pitching in tight ballgames makes him jittery.

Thanks for the website. Good talking to you and let’s hope Litsch comes through today!

I fully agree with what you are saying about stepping up when your bullpen is tired and your ace is on the dl. But when I see Halladay pitch a complete game with 89 pitches and go for 10 innings another game, 130 pitches from Burnett to get out of the I believe 7th inning is a little extensive.

You can’t compare Halladay and Burnett . One is a strikeout pitcher , the other a groundball pitcher . A strikeout pitcher will always throw more pitches . I think the secret to Burnett is to keep his pitch count to around 100 as he is susceptable to injury . You are right they are not conditioned to throw over 100 pitches and Burnett doing it in 3 consecutive games pays a price . Chacin will be the same type of pitcher, always prone to injury .
Its great to have League back

league set his own schedule. he decided at the beginning of his regimen that he would take time of from throwing and just lift weights, which led to his overdeveloped muscle. Jordan, correct me if I’m wrong!

I think Brandon League has the potential to go back to his role as a setup man for Ryan or Arccardo. I know League is not 100%, get him some work in the pen and the off season should help. Promote Janssen to the starting rotation along with Halladay, Burnett, McGowan, Marcum. Possibly Litsch??

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